Contemporary health care settings such as intensive care units, intermediate care units, operating rooms, hospital wards, ambulances and medevac helicopters make extensive use of devices showing patient monitoring data increasingly featuring powerful computers and large format flat screen displays. Furthermore, monitoring data is being used and displayed in telemedicine products, online and offline hardware and software applications, and a wide scope of consumer health products (e.g., e-health applications for smart devices), for use at home or in retirement homes.
Modern day monitoring devices display a multitude of monitoring parameters, e.g., ECG, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, and expiratory CO2. These parameters are displayed either as natural numbers or graphically as a waveform. E.g., current monitors may show blood pressure values numerically from 0-300 mm Hg or as a waveform, showing the value of a parameter over time, but not as an intuitively understandable single display (or instrument).
A contemporary patient monitor may display twenty or more different raw data points and waveforms on a single screen.
However, the number of data points displayed is extremely large and simply overwhelms users with information. Depending on the number of parameters monitored, it becomes impossible to consistently comprehend all of the constantly changing information and remain aware of the patients' situation (situation awareness of the healthcare provider).